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Select Board authorizes town counsel to respond to open-meeting-law complaint over Housing Authority appointment
Summary
A resident filed an open‑meeting‑law complaint alleging the Select Board's appointment process for a Needham Housing Authority vacancy should have been public. Town counsel advised the board the process followed the town’s appointment policy and did not create a subcommittee; the board voted to authorize counsel to submit a formal response.
The Select Board on June 24 voted to authorize town counsel to file a written response to an open‑meeting‑law complaint challenging the board’s process for filling a vacancy on the Needham Housing Authority.
The complaint, filed June 16 by a resident, argued that interviews of applicants conducted by Vice Chair Kathy together with the housing authority vice chair should have been held in public because the two had, in practice, acted as a subcommittee. Town Counsel Christopher Seipp told the board the central legal question is fact-specific and hinges on whether the Select Board intended to delegate appointment work to a subcommittee subject to open-meeting posting and minute requirements.
Nut graf:…
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